Shane Carwin v. Frank Mir For Interim Title At UFC 111 A Possibility

MMA Junkie is reporting that Frank Mir and Shane Carwin may clash at UFC 111 in March for the interim heavyweight title:

While UFC president Dana White recently said the status of UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar would be decided in the next four to six weeks, things are apparently progressing much faster.
MMAjunkie.com has learned from sources close to the organization that the UFC is targeting an interim heavyweight title matchup between top contender Shane Carwin and former UFC champion Frank Mir.
If both parties agree, the contest may take place at the increasingly attractive UFC 111 event on March 27 in Newark, N.J.

The promotion seems to be struggling to decide if they want to go the interim title route or not. On the surface it seems as though taking advantage of the new rules that state a “special attraction” fight may be 5 rounds while calling the fight a title eliminator would be a good idea. For many of the casual MMA fans seeing a different big man with a title around his waist will only serve to confuse.]

But the promotion also seems to be attempting to turn Lesnar’s illness into a dramatic storyline. Dana White has been spending a lot of time in front of the media talking about how Lesnar may never fight again and how desperately ill he was (while stressing that it was “not AIDS or cancer”). We hear from the UFC that it may be quite some time before Lesnar is able to start training again, while sources in the Lesnar camp say that he is already doing some lifting and cardio work. White claims that Lesnar went to the Mayo Clinic at his most desperate moment of illness, Lesnar’s camp denies that the champion ever went to the clinic.

Perhaps the UFC feels that there is significant money to be made by the story of Brock overcoming an illness which had nearly forced him out of the sport only to come back in an attempt to lay claim to being the one true champion. Hell, I’d buy that for $50